''Dead Realm'' was a horror-style game for the PC. The main gameplay consists of one player taking control of a ghost while the remaining players are humans who must avoid being haunted by the ghost. On August 27, 2020, 3BLACKDOT ended support and closed the official servers according to an announcement made on August 19, 2020, due to overwhelmingly negative reviews.

Gameplay

''Dead Realm'' starts off with several players, the maximum being 8 players in a game. The game consist of two game modes, Seek & Reap and Bounty. Seek & Reap is the basic game mode of the game. The game mode pits two teams, Humans, and Ghosts. The Humans must run or hide from the Ghost, and the Ghost attempts to find the Humans, turning them into Ghosts, who then

jump scare A jump scare (often shortened to jumpscare) is a technique often used in horror films and video games, intended to scare the audience by surprising them with an abrupt change in image or event, usually co-occurring with a loud, jarring sound. The j ...

the remaining players.

Development

The game's creative directors include TheSyndicateProject, and SeaNanners, with the help of

VanossGaming Evan Fong (born 31 May 1992), known online as VanossGaming (or simply Vanoss), is a Canadian internet personality, video game commentator, music producer, and DJ. He posts montage-style videos on YouTube of him and other creators playing variou ...

. ''Dead Realm'' was made available through the

Steam Early Access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

platform, and was fully released on May 23, 2017.

Reception

An early version of the game was previewed by

Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...

. While the game received positive reviews on Steam at first, most likely aided by VanossGaming's videos of him playing the game to promote it, they did not last long. By 2018 the reviews became extremely negative, including one that said "''Dead Realm'' is quite literally a dead realm. The developers are charging £11 for an abandoned, broken, buggy mess that they have no intention of fixing." Other reviews said things such as "the game is just that - dead." and that it was "impossible" to play a game unless one was able to invite friends, "because no plays the game anymore." These scathing reviews - compounded with other issues such as lag - eventually led to the servers being shut down in 2020. However, the game did not officially close down until August of the same year. Despite this, it ended with "Mixed" reviews on Steam.

Controversy

After the three YouTubers involved in production of ''Dead Realm'' (

Adam Montoya Adam Montoya (born June 12, 1984), better known as SeaNanners, is an American YouTuber. Career Early life and work After graduating from San Diego State University, Montoya did freelance work such as filming weddings. During this time, Adam, ...

Tom Cassell Thomas George Cassell (born 23 June 1993), known online as Syndicate, is an English YouTuber and Twitch streamer. Regarded as one of the earlier known gaming personalities, his videography consists of Let's Play videos on ''Call of Duty'' an ...

, and

Evan Fong Evan Fong (born 31 May 1992), known online as VanossGaming (or simply Vanoss), is a Canadian internet personality, video game commentator, music producer, and DJ. He posts montage-style videos on YouTube of him and other creators playing variou ...

) published their

Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and/or a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough or strat ...

videos about the game, they encountered controversy due to the fact that they did not clearly disclose their financial ties to the game, which constituted a violation of the FTC's ''".com Disclosures"'' set of guidelines.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
2015 video games Horror video games Multiplayer video games Windows games MacOS games Video games developed in the United States